Dreaming
by SaikonoYume
Summary: Dreams before the final battle connect Kagome to Sesshoumaru, and he to her. After the well closes, those dreams stop.
1. Chapter 1

It was a strange mist that settled over the campsite in the middle of the night, thick, heavy and not at all wet. Kagome lay still in her sleeping bag, eyes open but unseeing. _I've been having the most unsettling dreams_, she thought.

The final battle with Naraku drew ever nearer, so she attributed most of her strange dreaming to that. Tessaiga was complete, Sesshoumaru had found Bakusaiga and his arm had regenerated, and Kohaku was alive. Naraku had the entire jewel. Nothing remained to be done but to fight him for the jewel, to take it, destroy his soul, and purify the Jewel of Four Souls so it would no longer torment humanity. Surely, Kagome thought, her dreams were due to stress.

But she couldn't reconcile her dreams to her stress. Being killed by Naraku would be a dream born from stress. Losing her friends would be a dream born from stress. Shagging Inuyasha's hard-ass half-brother was _not_ a dream born from stress. Then again, she reasoned as she stared up at the sky obscured by fog, perhaps it _was_ born from stress. Maybe the intense dreams about Sesshoumaru were just her mind's way of attempting to cope.

Kagome made a face. She was lying to herself. She knew it. She just didn't care: it was a jolly good lie.

Having nothing better to do, Kagome rolled onto her side, closing her eyes. She burrowed into her sleeping bag. Within minutes, she was asleep.

* * *

Oh, she knew she was dreaming. She knew it, and she knew the dream was wrong. How could it not be? Dreaming about your crush's half-brother—dreaming that you were _shagging _him—was definitely wrong on many, many levels. Kagome recognized that, but her dream-self couldn't even begin to care. 

Sesshoumaru _called_ to her in these dreams. She could start off anywhere in the world, in her time, in the Sengoku Jidai, it didn't matter. No matter where she was, she could hear him, could feel him crawling through her skin like a delightful ripple of heat, and she would turn.

Kagome turned, hearing his voice, feeling his presence. She took a step forward, and hundreds of miles of grass passed beneath her feet. She took another step. Less distance passed. She could tell because the wind didn't rush by her as quickly; the trees didn't blur as much.

Standing before him, Kagome didn't lift her eyes. He was so tall that her nose only brushed his collar bone when he held her in his arms. They stood for a few minutes in her dream world until Sesshoumaru lifted his arm. "Come," he commanded.

Without hesitation, Kagome threw herself against his chest. She clung to him desperately, as if letting go would cause her to fall thousands of feet. His arms came around her, cradling her, and she let out a shuddering cry against his chest. It always started like this. For all she made light of her dreams about Sesshoumaru, but they always started the same way: she cried, and he held her. She was so afraid, and he was the only one who knew, her dream Sesshoumaru. Kagome didn't dare tell anyone else of her own fears. She didn't want anyone in the waking world to know how uncertain she was. But Sesshoumaru was a product of dreams, and a product of dreams was safe to tell.

"I'm so scared," she whispered into his chest.

He leaned down, tilting her chin up and her head back. His lips fell on her cheeks, wiping away her tears.

* * *

Her mind was a strange place in which to exist, Sesshoumaru thought as she raced toward him across the hills and valleys. They never started in the same place and, though he knew he could feel her in the same way she felt him, he always called to her. Once he did, something inside her would resonate, almost like Tensaiga had resonated with Tessaiga, a strange duet that made no sense to him while it felt so right. 

Perhaps it was fate. Kagome was the keeper of the Jewel of Four Souls. Created with the best intentions of friendship, courage, wisdom and love, it was the center of an eternal battle between a miko and a mashed together demon like Naraku. It seemed logical to him, then, that the keeper of the Jewel would reflect the battle inside the Jewel and be drawn to a powerful youkai. Kagome was to Midoriko as he was to the youkai in the Jewel, a finer piece than Naraku would ever be, to be certain.

Shifting his attention from his thoughts to her face, Sesshoumaru watched her. She was so tiny, the miko who was charged with such a gargantuan task.

Even though he was in a dream, he could scent the tears threatening to flow. He lifted his arm in invitation. "Come," he commanded. Obedient in a disobedient way, Kagome flung herself against him, clinging to him. He closed his arms around her, pleased despite her inadequate execution of the command. Sesshoumaru had said "come," not "throw yourself at me." But it was well enough, and he held her.

His sensitive ears twitched. Faintly, he heard the sound of things resonating, and heat rippled across his skin, vanishing when it reached a place Kagome touched. He knew that it traveled into her skin when it left him, sweeping through her before returning to him.

"I'm so scared."

Sesshoumaru knew. She admitted to him what she would never admit to her friends, and he didn't mind. It was strange, because he should mind. But the fact that she was human, and a miko, his natural enemy, didn't bother him when he was with her inside their minds.

Keeping his motions gentle and controlled, he tilted her head back so he could brush away her tears with his lips. The water was pleasantly salty, staining his lips with her scent. He didn't mind that, either. It didn't bother Sesshoumaru, in the dreams they shared through some strange magic, that his scent was all over her body, marking her as his. Nor did he mind that her scent was all over his body, marking him as hers. It seemed natural in the dreams, and he knew she needed the reassurance that brought them so close. His idiot half-brother couldn't help her.

* * *

Sliding her fingers through his hair, Kagome shifted her face and kissed his lips. A rumble started in his chest, and she murmured her approval with wordless sounds, continuing the kiss. 

She knew better than this. Sesshoumaru was a killer. He was cold-hearted and vicious. The only indication to the contrary was Rin. It was as if Sesshoumaru wore Rin as a mask, and the cold was a shield against his own heart.

In her dreams, Sesshoumaru was so much more of some things, and so much less of others. The difference made her toes curl in the grass. Kagome pulled back from Sesshoumaru's lips, breathless and full of giggles.

He rolled his eyes at her without actually rolling them, and suddenly she found herself on her back beneath him, naked. That was the best part of the dreams she shared with him: time could pass abruptly with nothing happening but the loss of useless clothing.

With his warm body pressed against hers, still fully clothed, she noted absently, Kagome sighed with happiness. Her fingers caressed his cheeks, tracing the fine maroon lines across his cheekbones. She liked to feel his skin beneath her fingertips, hot and soft. The only feeling like it was that of his silken clothes, made warm by his body, beneath her fingers.

"Ease my fears?" she asked him softly.

A rumble passed from his body to hers, something she had learned was approval, and then his clothes were off as well.

* * *

Inuyasha was awake when the mist settled. 

He was awake when Kagome fell asleep.

And he was awake when she whispered his brother's name.

Unable to summon tears of sorrow, he sat in his tree, watching the fog obscured the moon and the stars. It was his own fault. His attachment to Kikyou always hurt Kagome. She would send him off with a smile, even though he knew her heart broke every time he had left her to look after Kikyou. It was no wonder, then, that she sought solace elsewhere.

Pain, awful and unimaginable, buoyed up in his heart, rending it a second time. But this was all part of Naraku's plan, Inuyasha knew. He wanted them to suffer. If they suffered, their hearts would become dark, stark, and perfect additions to the corrupted Jewel.

Inuyasha only wished Kagome would come to him, instead of dreaming about Sesshoumaru.

* * *

Crying out softly, Kagome buried her fingers in Sesshoumaru's hair. He growled as he ran his tongue between her legs, licking away the moisture he found there. She was delicious, even in dreams, where taste ought not to exist. Perhaps he only imagined the taste, but he didn't care. She was a small taste of heaven, a fruit cocktail with spice and musk. 

He circled her clit with his tongue, growling softly against her flesh. Above him, she mewled. Her fingers drove deeper into his hair, massaging his scalp as she clawed at him, her pleasure intense, like fire coursing through her veins.

Sesshoumaru ran his finger along her opening, teasing the very edges, collecting saliva and her own moisture. He drew back long enough to sample the liquid on his finger, listening to Kagome's groan of pleasure with hidden delight. He loved to do things to deliberately goad a reaction from her. What pleased him more was that he didn't have to try too hard. The little innocent that she was, Kagome reacted to every touch, every look, and every move. Sesshoumaru had never preferred virgins—they were unnecessarily shy and silly—but while Kagome was shy and sometimes silly, she went about it in an endearing way.

"Stop that," she gasped.

Sesshoumaru arched one brow and looked at her. "Stop what?"

"Taking your God damn time," Kagome snapped, her back arching, a silent plea for his attentions.

Growling softly, the streaks on his face becoming just a bit more jagged, Sesshoumaru fell on Kagome. His lips closed around her clit as his finger slid into her tight opening. The most wonderful thing about dreams was that the body never changed: she was always as tight as a virgin, and she was always hot and slick.

Stroking her, suckling her, Sesshoumaru listened to her gasp and groan. Her body stretched taught beneath him, and he could smell her arousal heightening to that critical point. He slid another finger inside her, twisting his wrist to press against that sweet spot that made her scream, and she rewarded him with exactly what he sought.

As his name was torn from her lips by an intense orgasm, Kagome clenched around him. Her muscles clamping down around his fingers made his cock twitch, and he was hard pressed to rip off his clothes and dive into her body.

* * *

Rocking her hips against the tip of Sesshoumaru's hardness, Kagome grappled with the ground. He was teasing her. She loved this teasing, when he just brushed that velvet covered still erection against her opening, but she wanted _more_. She wanted to be filled with him, so much that she thought she might burst, and he obliged her, sliding into her wet heat. 

Groaning, Kagome wrapped one of her legs around his hips, drawing him closer to her body. Their mouths clashed, tongues tangling as he thrust into her, and she lifted her body to meet his. At this point, neither ever cared how gentle their kisses were. All either wanted was an outlet for passion. Grace wasn't necessary, neither was kindness. The only thing that mattered was pleasure, and it was a vicious dance into which Sesshoumaru drew Kagome.

"Sesshoumaru," she moaned, arching beneath him, offering him her neck.

Sesshoumaru closed his teeth around the muscle at the junction of neck and shoulder. A shot of pain mixed delightfully with pleasure shot along her nerves, and Kagome keened with pleasure, twisting beneath him. His body slid deeper into hers and she cried out his name.

Coasting his hands over her body as he moved against her, his fingers found caramel tipped breasts. He tweaked her nipples, rubbing them between his thumb and forefinger until she gasped and could little more than writhe as pleasure began to overcome her. Every stroke into her body sent sparks of pleasure from his throbbing length inside her to her nipples and back. Liquid fire pooled where they were joined, and Kagome was having a hard time remembering to breathe. Sesshoumaru had that effect on her. When he was standing beside her, when he was kissing her, touching her, stroking inside her she forgot that things like breathing were necessary to life.

She begged breathlessly with him not to stop, not quite believing that he had any intention to finish with her. He was too amazing—too good—and Kagome knew that he was a product of her deranged imagination, but all that mattered was the pleasure crashing around her as her back arched and she shouted his name as her orgasm overcame her.

Sesshoumaru didn't stop. He kept thrusting into her, one hand cradling her head, his lips against her neck as his teeth nibbled and his tongue licked. Kagome's imagination immediately supplied one of her favorite images: him, between her legs, his lips and fingers and tongue working her into an orgasm. That mental picture, coupled with the tongue still on her neck and the erection still pressing into her, sent her over the edge again. This time, Sesshoumaru followed her, roaring his pleasure and she murmured his name.

He collapsed, but he was careful not to collapse on her. Instead, Sesshoumaru fell to the side, laying his head on the arm that cradled her head. A languid expression came over his face as he slid from her, and Kagome imagined he was smiling. A smile quirked her own lips when she realized she didn't have to imagine too hard.

"Before I met you, I never had multiple orgasms, you know," she said to him, as if this was an every day conversation. He emboldened her, her dreams, too. She said things to him, in her dreams, that she would never say in real life.

Sesshoumaru made a soft noise that akin to a chuckle. Kagome accepted it as one. "Sometimes, all you need, is someone else's hand," he murmured, a rough edge to his voice.

Immediately, arousal flared in Kagome's belly, heat throbbing and pulsing in her core. Sesshoumaru noticed, but he was too much a gentleman to act on it. She loved that in him. When he was with her, no matter how much she wanted, he would only take her after she indicated she wanted it.

Turning her head, Kagome brushed her lips over his cheek. His hand drifted idly over her breasts and stomach, settling between her legs possessively. Mewling softly, Kagome pressed against his hand, but he didn't press back. Instead, Sesshoumaru watched her intently.

"Cease," he commanded. "I want to remember your expression."

"Why?" Kagome asked, eyes fluttering closed as his fingers brushed over her ever so softly, just enough to make her want more from him.

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, and she didn't need him to do so. Instead, he shifted over her again, kissing her softly, sweetly, his tongue caressing hers. It was a sweetness they lost in their coupling, though neither missed it. Ferocity had its place, and so did gentleness. Sesshoumaru pressed his finger into her opening, caressing and stroking until she was hot and panting beneath him once more. He took her again, and again, searing her face as she came into his memory, wanting to hold on to it.

* * *

Turning his head to the tree line to the north, Inuyasha grunted. "You're upwind," he said to his brother. 

Sesshoumaru stepped from the shadows, but neither moved to attack the other.

Following Sesshoumaru's gaze, Inuyasha looked at Kagome. "She settled down about five minutes ago. Did it take you that long to get here?" he asked, actually trying not to sound too abrasive. Inuyasha was many things, and many times he was stupid, but he understood this. If you keep pushing and shoving, eventually, something has to give. He kept pushing, and Kagome gave.

A slight inclination of Sesshoumaru's head was the only response Inuyasha received.

The hanyou sighed, closing his eyes briefly. "Is she okay?" he asked.

"She is still scared," Sesshoumaru replied.

"We're all scared. Except, maybe, for you."

"Magatsuhi took Rin," Sesshoumaru said. He tilted his head just enough to meet Inuyasha's eyes.

Inuyasha nodded, more to himself than to indicate Sesshoumaru's meaning. "What about when this over? What will you do?"

Sesshoumaru was silent for a long time. Inuyasha almost thought his brother hadn't heard until, finally, he said, "I will wait for her."

"You're going to be waiting a mighty long time," Inuyasha said brusquely.

"Some things in life are worth waiting for, idiot," Sesshoumaru replied. For a moment, Inuyasha thought Sesshoumaru might have smiled, but he dismissed that crazy idea when his half-brother turned and vanished into the night.

* * *

"I can't believe we're going to graduate tomorrow!" Ayumi leaned back in her chair, sipping her drink. 

Yuka hit her fist on the table. "We have to remain best friends, no matter where we go to college, right?" she asked, looking between the other three.

Eri dropped her hand over Yuka's, clasping it dramatically. "Friends forever, no matter what!" she agreed exuberantly.

Ayumi rolled her eyes and put her hand over Eri's. "As long as you don't make a fool out of me when I bring my college boyfriend home for break," she agreed.

"And what makes you think you're going to get a boy?" Kagome asked, almost leering. The four laughed good-naturedly, and Kagome dropped her hand on top of the others. "Best friends," she agreed, "no matter what."

They laughed, all drawing back and chattering idly while they ate their fries. Kagome's gaze turned to the window, and she tuned out her friends' idle chatter about older men. The well had closed after the battle with Naraku, locking her in the modern era. It hurt, because she had come to see all the people in the Sengoku Jidai as closer friends than the ones she had in the modern era. But she had learned many things during her adventure: she had learned to overcome. She fought her way through high school, applying the same dedication to her studies that she had to the search for the Jewel of Four Souls, and she had, to her surprise, managed to graduate in the top five percent. With college looming on the horizon, Kagome had decided she would major in history. She figured it made sense—she had lived part of history, after all.

"Oh. My. God. Who _is_ that? He's _gorgeous_." Eri's murmured exclamation drew Kagome from her aimless daydreams.

"Who?" she inquired, sipping her drink.

Yuka, suddenly latching on to Kagome's arm, pointed. "Him," she said, her voice unable to hide her delight.

Kagome followed Yuka's pointing finger, and her heart nearly stopped. Sesshoumaru stood at the counter of the fast food joint, presumably ordering. He looked different. Older. His silvery hair was cropped short, wind-combed and just as sexy as when it had been long. His eyes looked to be a richer amber, more hazel than before, and Kagome was certain he was wearing makeup to cover his markings, but he was still Sesshoumaru.

"Do you know who that is?" Ayumi suddenly asked. "Can you… God, that's Mahito Shuusaishi. I can't… Why would he be _here_?"

Yuka rolled her eyes. "Ayumi, spare us. Not everyone is obsessed with economics and business."

The look on Ayumi's face was priceless. "But _everyone_ knows who Mahito Shuusaishi is," she said.

"We don't," Eri muttered.

Kagome choked down the urge to say she knew him, wanting to hear from Ayumi what Sesshoumaru had made himself into.

"He's only the richest and most eligible bachelor in Japan. And probably the world. People say he's got more money than Oprah and Bill Gates and those sheiks in Saudi Arabia," Ayumi explained. "He owns a number of weapon's manufacturing companies, as well as parts of the Starbucks chain. He owns a number of his own companies, too. He does a lot of contracted work for the government."

"Fancy that," Kagome said softly. "Excuse me." She extricated herself from Yuka's death grip. She walked with more poise and grace than she felt. Inside, she was a wreck, but outside, she was nothing but smiles. As Sesshoumaru took his tray, the eyes of everyone in the fast food joint staring at him in shock, Kagome stopped. He turned to her.

His eyes widened slightly.

Kagome just stared at him stupidly. Suddenly, she realized she should have thought about what she was going to say to him before she pranced up to him. "Uh, hi" just seemed stupid and "Remember me? We fought Naraku together" was too… something else.

"Nice suit," she finally said, giving herself a mental beating.

"Nice uniform," he replied instantly. "Just as bad as your first."

Kagome felt her face heat and knew her face was scarlet. "Well. You know. Japanese schools."

They were silent a moment longer, and Kagome was conscious of all the eyes on them. Sesshoumaru didn't seem to be fazed.

"You aren't dead," she murmured.

A small smile turned up the corners of his lips. Clearly, he was more expressive now than he had been six hundred years before. "Obviously," he agreed. Abruptly, Sesshoumaru seemed to become aware of all the people watching him. "This is not the best of places to reminisce. We should meet elsewhere."

"Speaking of which, why are you eating at a McDonald's of all places?" Kagome asked, surprising herself.

A rueful chuckle—Sesshoumaru actually laughed!—issued from him. "I was hungry. Such a travesty, is it not?" He set his food down and pulled out a business card and a pen. On the back, he wrote two numbers. "My cell phone and home phone number. Call me whenever you wish. We will arrange a meeting."

Kagome accepted the card, her fingers lingering a bit longer than necessary on his, her blue eyes locked on his. She had so many questions for him, but only one seemed to matter to her.

"Did you dream about me?" she asked. Her face was hot again, and she knew she had embarrassed herself when he stiffened. Of course Sesshoumaru hadn't dreamed about her. She had dreamed about him because of stress. What a stupid question.

Fingers on her chin drew Kagome from her thoughts. Sesshoumaru peered down at her before he leaned closer, brushing his lips over each cheek as if kissing away tears. "There's no reason to be scared," he told her. Sesshoumaru picked up his food and stepped away, a smile on his face. "Call me," he commanded, and then he took his food and left.

Kagome stared after him, wondering at the irony that he had come into the building instead of going through drive-thru. On a bizarre high that allowed her to ignore the whispers about her, Kagome made her way back to her friends. She sat, Sesshoumaru's business card in hand.

"What is that?" Yuka demanded.

Kagome showed her.

"His business card!" Ayumi gasped. "How did you… Do you know him?" she demanded.

_I did before_, Kagome thought. _Six hundred years ago._ But youkai, who were made to live forever, weren't easily changed. Nothing made to be immortal could be anything but steadfast. Perhaps he hadn't changed so much. "I… met his brother a while back," Kagome finally said, and it wasn't a lie.

It was Eri, with all her common sense, that suggested they leave. Eyes were on them, and people were making calls on their cell phones. Granted, they would have made those calls anyway, but now they were telling others about how some nobody high school girl talked to Mahito Shuusaishi and got his business card.

When Kagome got home, she ignored her family, locking herself in her room and just staring at the business card for an hour. It took her another hour to actually let one of the calls go through. At first, she'd stop dialing and hang up. Then she would complete the dialing, but she'd hang up at the first ring on her end.

Sitting in her room, staring at the phone, Kagome wondered what her problem was. Sure, she hadn't gotten to know Sesshoumaru intimately outside of her dreams and, clearly, he was incredibly influential in the modern world, too, but even so. This shouldn't be so damn difficult. It wasn't like she was calling some boy she wanted to date or anything.

Kagome groaned.

That was the problem, though, wasn't it, because that was exactly what she was doing. And he had dreamed, too!

Gritting her teeth. Kagome dialed, and put the phone to her ear. On the second ring, it picked up.

"Do you enjoy prank calling, Miss Higurashi?"

Sesshoumaru's voice was that familiar rich baritone, and it settled, warm and heavy, in her belly.

"N-no, I'm sorry if I was—"

"Joking, Miss Higurashi," he said, and there was laughter in his voice.

Kagome was silent for half a second before saying, "I didn't think you knew my last name."

"I looked it up. It wasn't too hard. I knew your first name was Kagome, that you missed a lot of school in your early teens, and that you lived in the Tokyo area," Sesshoumaru replied.

"That's… really creepy."

"It is, isn't it?"

They both fell silent. Kagome chewed her lip and wondered what Sesshoumaru was doing on the other end of the line. "So," she finally managed. "Lunch sometime?"

"As long as you promise to speak in complete sentences," Sesshoumaru replied, and Kagome was rendered silent because he had made a joke. "Don't worry, Kagome, I haven't changed so much. There is a pleasant restaurant you might enjoy. It's traditional, but is fairly dressy. Do you have evening wear?"

"I… have a black cocktail dress from a high school dance," she said, thinking about the strapless, gauzy affair. "I don't think it would be appropriate, though."

"Tomorrow is Sunday. You will accompany me to the department store. We shall find a suitable dress, and then dine out. Is that accommodating for you?"

"Er, yes."

There was a pause. She wasn't sure whether or not she ought to hang up.

"And Kagome?"

"Yes?"

"Have pleasant dreams tonight."

Sesshoumaru hung up, and so did she. For a moment, Kagome watched her phone. Then she crawled into her bed, it being late, and had very, very pleasant dreams.

* * *

_A one shot, intended to be a song fic, that got away from me. Like… very far away from me. As in… I'm the sun, and this fic is Pluto. So, yeah, there you are._


	2. Chapter 2

His hands were all over her at once. Kagome was certain Sesshoumaru had more than two. Surely there were hands on both her breasts, another in her hair, and yet another between her legs and still one more holding her hips down to the grass. Maybe he could just move so quickly and smoothly that two hands felt like infinitely more. She didn't care either way. His touch, absent from her body for three years, was just as wonderful as she remembered.

"Sesshoumaru," she purred, arching under him. With him, when fire coursed through her body and she was bright like an industrial light bulb, it was alright to be wanton. Her few boyfriends through high school saw her as a sweet virgin. For them, she hadn't been anything else. None of them set off her body quite like Sesshoumaru. She hadn't slept with any of them anyway. Her learned dedication kept her too focused on her schoolwork, causing her to neglect the needy boys who consistently demanded her time.

His lips closed over one of her nipples as his fingers tweaked the other. Kagome groaned. Heat on one side and pleasurable pressure bordering on pain on the other. It made her head spin with desire. She might not have had sex with her boyfriends, but she had messed around a bit with them. They didn't do this for her.

"How do you do this?" Kagome demanded on a breath she stole from him with a kiss.

Sesshoumaru watched her idly. "It's not so hard for a youkai," he replied, parting her legs with his thigh and sliding inside her. Kagome gasped beneath him. She didn't know exactly why, but the fact that he didn't have to guide himself into her was sinfully erotic. Then again, everything about Sesshoumaru was sinfully erotic. Kagome doubted the world would have it any other way. If Sesshoumaru was anything else, it would be a sin against existence. She laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" he inquired, and she could hear that she had pricked his delicate male pride.

"I was just thinking that—"

"You aren't allowed to think." Sesshoumaru shifted, drawing her over him, something he had never done in her previous dreams. With his hands on her hips, he urged her to move.

Up and down, Kagome rode him, her head tossed back. His lips found her breasts. He covered them, and her chest, with kisses and nips and licks that left her panting as his body in hers left her breathless. Pleasure building between her legs, she buried her fingers in Sesshoumaru's hair, holding him to her breasts as she keened with desperation. He growled, and that undid her.

Crying his name, she came undone in a torrent of unspeakable pleasure. Her body shone with sweat and pleasured exertion as she dropped her head to his shoulder.

In a single, graceful movement, Sesshoumaru pulled Kagome against his body and rolled them so that her back was pressed to his chest.

"I missed these dreams," she said softly, eyes closed. Her hands found his where they laced around her waist, holding to him. "Even if there were only a few to begin with. Still. It's easy to miss something so wonderful."

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru agreed, nuzzling behind her ear.

Kagome rewarded him with a soft moan. She wiggled against him, pressing her body closer to his. "Don't _do_ that," she gasped.

"I like to," he replied, blatantly ignoring her to nip at her ear.

Kagome moved suddenly. Sesshoumaru could have stopped her, but he rarely did. He enjoyed it, she knew, when she surprised him. Leaning over his body, Kagome grinned, then lowered her face. She nibbled the lobe of his ear and proceeded to run her tongue around the shell of his ear. When she reached the tip, she paused, first kissing and then nibbling. Beneath her, Sesshoumaru's breath hitched.

"I like doing that to you," she murmured, her breath caressing the sensitive skin of his ear. His breath caught again and Kagome lowered herself, snuggling against his side. It was true—she did like touching him so that he made pleasured noises. He was usually too controlled for it, but when she found the right spot, if she touched it, kissed it, licked it, she could undo all that finely tuned control. It was something she had learned in all their times together in just that one night.

Tucking her against his side, looking up at the bright sky of the Sengoku Jidai, Sesshoumaru said, "It will be morning for us both, soon."

Kagome nodded. "You know. We should consider building a relationship based on similar interests, not just sex," she commented idly. She felt him shift to look down at her. "My mom said that's why our dad left." And then he got hit by a car. Her mother had been devastated. Kagome couldn't remember him enough to feel anything.

Sesshoumaru was silent for a long time before he replied. "You and I are out of time, Kagome. It is doubtful that our ways will part soon."

"I hope not," Kagome said quietly. If he had been human, she knew he wouldn't have heard her.

Sesshoumaru shifted her and, as they both began to fade from their dream world, he kissed her softly. "At least you're not in your cage anymore, little bird," he murmured.

Kagome smiled. "I don't know about that. I'll see you when you come by."

"I will call first."

* * *

Kagome threw the alarm clock against the wall, as if its ringing woke her. In truth, she woke five minutes before it went off at nine, after the dream with Sesshoumaru ended. Smiling, Kagome pulled her pillow over her face. A moment later, her smile turned into outrageous laughter. She was going to go dress shopping with Sesshoumaru, with Mahito Shuusaishi. She wondered if she ought to tell her family.

"I have to tell them," she told the pillow, her voice still full of giggles.

When she skipped into the bathroom some ten minutes later with a nice skirt and blouse, Sota stared after her.

"What's got you so exited?" he asked her before she shut the door.

Kagome grinned at him. "I'll tell you in a minute." She shut the door, humming to herself. She burst into song a moment later, a peppy tune Tamaki Nami covered for a Disney movie. She had no doubt that Sota was standing outside the door, looking at it like Kagome might have finally lost her mind, but she didn't care.

"In a few hours, you're going to go shopping with Sesshoumaru," she murmured to herself in a sing-song voice. And then she was singing again, this time a ballad.

By the time she was washed, dried and dressed, her mood had dampened a little. She had started imagining all the things that could go wrong, and had wondered, if Sesshoumaru lived, did anyone else? Kouga was a full youkai, so he could still be alive. It pained her heart, but she figured Inuyasha was gone. Those thoughts led her to wonder how they had managed to integrate with human society so seamlessly. In the past, the youkai had been solitary predators. They would never demean themselves by integrating with human society. Perhaps it had been the changing times, she thought. The Edo period had changed a lot. Maybe it had been then. She figured that, by the time Japan became an industrial society, the youkai remaining had managed to find ways to hide who and what they had been in favor of disguising themselves to insure survival.

"That probably chafed his pride," Kagome said to herself with a laugh.

With a few strokes, she applied a bit of blush, a pretty mocha eyeliner and eye shadow. After starting high school, Kagome had started wearing make up to cover up a bizarre outbreak of ache. Dermatologists couldn't figure out why acne medicine wouldn't get rid of it, but after her wisdom teeth were pulled and she took the antibiotics to prevent infection, the rash went away. As habit, she continued wearing makeup. Not much, just enough to accentuate what she already had.

Making her way downstairs, she waved to her mother, who was sitting at the couch in the family room, a subtitled episode of Oprah on television. "Morning," she said to her mother.

Kagome's mother lifted her hand. "One minute, sweetie."

Rolling her eyes, Kagome helped herself to some cereal for breakfast, sitting across the table from Sota, who was dressed for a baseball game. He had joined a little league team since entering sixth grade. "When's your game?" she asked.

"Eleven," he replied. "You coming?"

Instantly, she felt bad. "I can't… actually… I'm going out with someone this afternoon."

Her mother muted Oprah and turned to her. Sota's eyes widened a bit, and Kagome was honestly surprised that her grandfather didn't come running into the room. Ah, no, there he was. Everything was still normal.

"Who?" her mother asked.

With her entire family staring at her, Kagome felt a bit awkward. "Well… You remember Inuyasha, right?" she asked. Collectively, they nodded. It was a strange moment, as if they were in some bizarre anime and the animators wanted to make a little joke. "Ah, well… I'm going to meet his brother."

"You mean the crazy one who tried to kill you?" Sota demanded.

"He's alive?" That from her mother, who looked only mildly surprised.

Her grandfather wasn't perturbed in the least. Somehow, though, Kagome wasn't surprised by that. Her family had always been supportive of her when she was in the Sengoku Jidai, so the fact that they weren't too blown away by this announcement didn't seem odd to her.

"Yes, he's… alive. And yes, that's the one who tried to kill us. Only a few times. And he did save me when I was poisoned on the way to Mount Hakurei. He also helped in the last battle." She paused, shrugging. "I don't know how he's still alive. I ran into him at McDonald's, of all places, yesterday. He… wants to take me out to dinner."

"That's why you look so nice!" her mother exclaimed, smiling.

Kagome flushed. "Actually, we're going shopping first… for a cocktail dress…"

Her mother simply smiled, as if this was nothing strange. Her brother made a funny face. He was still too young to be too concerned with girls. Speaking of which… Kagome grinned at Sota. "Hey, Sota, how's Hitomi doing? Are you still 'dating' each other?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

Sota glared at her, finished eating quickly, and stalked off.

Smiling to herself, Kagome went back to eating. Her mom returned to Oprah, but her grandfather laid his hand on her shoulder. "I want to talk to you when you're done," he said, and he left the kitchen through the outside door. Kagome watched him making his way toward the Goshinboku.

A strange feeling came over her, so she finished eating as quickly as possible, put her dishes in the dishwasher, and hurried outside. It was late spring, and the Goshinboku was blooming. Ever since the well had closed, the tree had bloomed. Kagome's grandfather stood beneath the branches, looking up at them. She approached him, a curious look on her face.

"Grandpa?"

"Ah, Kagome." He smiled at her, indicating she come closer. She did so, standing beside him, looking up just like he did. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She started, but then smiled. "Yeah. There's a lot I could talk to Sesshoumaru about that I can't talk to anyone else about. I told you and Mama everything that happened to me in the Sengoku Jidai, but Sesshoumaru was there. We fought Naraku together."

"Is he the same?"

Kagome chewed her lip. "Probably not entirely. But demons are immortal."

Her grandfather nodded. "No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it. But it can still be whittled away over many years."

"And he's called Mahito Shuusaishi, now," Kagome added.

Solemnly, her grandfather turned to her and took her hands. "My dear, you have my blessings," he intoned seriously.

Kagome stared at him, confused. "What… Grandpa! I'm not marrying Sesshoumaru! We're having dinner!"

"But he's rich," he grandfather pointed out, arching his brows suggestively.

"You'll never change, you old crock!" Kagome exclaimed, jerking her hands away and storming back into the house.

She passed the next few hours reading a bit about the University of Tokyo online. She had surprised her entire family by getting into the university despite all her hard work throughout high school. After the debacle of middle school, no one had really expected her to succeed. She was still miserable at math, but her English was excellent, and her passion for history was unmatched. Todai had actually contacted her with an inquiry. They wanted to know why she _hadn't_ applied to their school. Since they also threw a substantial scholarship in her direction, she filled out the application immediately. A month later, she had an acceptance letter. It was pinned on her bulletin board, reminding her of what she had done and what she was going to do.

The ringing of her cell phone startled her from her reading. She flipped it open, lifting it to her ear. "Kagome," she said, since no one but her friends had her cell number.

"Will you be ready to leave in approximately ten minutes?" Sesshoumaru inquired.

Kagome started, knocking her mouse off the desk. Cursing, she lunged after it, only succeeding in knocking her head on a corner of the desk. She didn't want to know what Sesshoumaru thought was going on in her room.

"Did I startle you?"

"I wasn't paying attention," she replied. "I didn't look at the caller ID. But, yes, I can be ready. Do you need directions?" It didn't even cross her mind that he was only ten minutes away and, thus, already had directions.

"Along with your name, Kagome, I found your address, your medical and dental history, and your rather outstanding application to the University of Tokyo. So, no. I have no need for directions," Sesshoumaru said, and she noted a tone of smugness in his voice that made her want to brain him with a skillet. Male pride, sometimes, was almost insufferable.

"You're really scary, you know that?" she asked.

"Then not much has changed, Kagome. But those are merely perks to being one of the most powerful and influential men in Japan. You now have seven minutes."

"I'll be ready! Goodbye!" She hung up on him, which was probably going to earn her a dirty look from him in the near future, if she judged his slightly more open personality rightly. As Kagome quickly retouched her makeup and hair, she realized she ought not to judge his personality at all. Deciding she looked fine, she grabbed a purse, stuffing her wallet and her cell phone inside.

As she hurried down the stairs, her mother called out, "When will you be back?"

"I don't know—maybe ten tonight?" she guessed. "How about I call you?"

"Make sure you do," her mother said, catching her hand.

Kagome looked up at her mother as her mother looked back down at her. She smoothed a lock of Kagome's hair out of her face. Kagome felt her throat tighten. She didn't know why, but this moment, for some reason, seemed very, very important.

"Why did it never bother you?" Kagome asked quietly.

Her mother smiled softly. "Ask Sesshoumaru," she replied.

There came a knock at the door. Kagome tore herself away from her mother, freezing as her grandfather opened the door. He looked up at Sesshoumaru, who towered over him by at least a foot and a half. "You here for Kagome?" her grandfather demanded.

"Yes," Sesshoumaru replied dryly, his gaze settling on her grandfather for only a second. Kagome watched him rake his eyes over her, wondering if he really was undressing her with his eyes. It felt like he was.

When she realized he was waiting for her, Kagome gave her mother a quick hug. She gave another to her grandfather. Sota was already gone for his game. Turning to Sesshoumaru, she smiled. "Let's go, shall we?" she inquired.

He nodded, escorting her out the door to his car. He had a driver, which didn't surprise Kagome in the least when she noted it. Once she was settled, he went around the other side of the car and slid in after her.

Before he could say anything, she asked, "How long do you think we'll be out?"

Sesshoumaru arched a brow. "It depends on how much you wish to talk. Tomorrow is Monday, however. You have school. I will make sure you're home by midnight," he replied.

Kagome flashed him a smile, and quickly dialed home, telling her mother to expect her no later than midnight. Her mother didn't mind, and she hung up, turning off her phone and tucking it into her purse.

"Have you eaten lunch?" Sesshoumaru inquired.

Kagome nodded. "Just before you called, yes. I was looking up some information on Todai and munching on a sandwich when you called."

Sesshoumaru nodded. He leaned forward. "Shinjuku," he said to the driver, giving him the name of a store Kagome had heard of but never actually set foot in—people like Hamasaki Ayumi shopped there!

"Sesshoumaru, I can't afford to get a dress at—"

"I will purchase it," Sesshoumaru replied as if Kagome was an idiot.

She stared at him. "That's… you really don't have to… I mean…"

The look he gave her shut her up in a heartbeat. The stoic, cold-hearted taiyoukai was in that glare, and she really didn't want to tangle with Sesshoumaru in a snit. She fell silent.

* * *

When Sesshoumaru had proposed purchasing a dress, Kagome had figured they'd be going into a store, finding the first suitable thing, and then leaving. She was horribly, horribly mistaken. Sesshoumaru took her to at least ten stores, purchasing at least two dresses from each store. Each dress easily cost more than the mortgage on a house. He didn't seem to care. The dresses they took with them to each store so that he could compare each dress to the new ones. When they finished, he said they'd take most of them back. That still meant Kagome was going to end up with two or three dresses that cost as much as a Porsche.

She also hadn't expected a youkai male to have such an interest in female clothing. Kagome had figured dress shopping would be just as painful for him as it usually was for her. Instead, he seemed to enjoy having her dress up at each store they went to. When Sesshoumaru finally decided on his favorites—of which there were six—he then insisted she get matching shoes.

Once they returned the dresses of which Sesshoumaru didn't approve, he took her to a shoe store that might as well have been a warehouse. As with the dress shops, attendants were on them in a second, and Kagome was more than happy to let Sesshoumaru do all the talking. He showed them the dresses as she sat down on a bench and the attendants fetched them shoes that would match. If Sesshoumaru was particular about dresses, he was anal retentive about shoes. Some were hideously uncomfortable, and Sesshoumaru noticed Kagome's discomfort every time. Those were taken away. When they had the shoes sorted based on comfort, Kagome had to try them all on again, strutting up and down the aisle for Sesshoumaru and the attendants' perusal. If he didn't like how one pair made her walk, they were taken away. If he didn't like how the shoes made her foot look, those were taken as well.

Kagome, far too practical to ever want shoes with three inch heals and glitter, was still quite happy to let him orchestrate the entire thing. She ended up with six pairs of shoes, one for each dress. She deliberately distanced herself from the register when he paid, unwilling to hear what the abhorrently high total would surely be.

Following shoe shopping, Sesshoumaru decided they would go jewelry shopping. Kagome had a small heart attack. As they walked through the crowded Shinjuku streets, which were far less crowded for them—people got out of Mahito Shuusaishi's way without question—they had a brief battle of wills about the jewelry. Kagome insisted on the bare minimum, since he had already spent so much. Sesshoumaru returned that he wanted her properly outfitted. Kagome argued that she could be properly outfitted with a single diamond around her throat. Sometimes, she reminded him, less was more. Mollified, Sesshoumaru led her to the jewelry store at which he preferred to shop.

This time, only one person approached them, and only after Sesshoumaru indicated her presence would be needed. She obviously knew Sesshoumaru well, since she used his first name and he returned the familiarity. For a brief second, Kagome was jealous. Ioroi Kazuko seemed to notice her discomfort and conversationally mentioned that she was going out to dinner with her husband that night as well, and she was pleased to see Shuusaishi finally take an interest in the opposite sex.

Kazuko picked out a pair of diamond earrings for Kagome to wear with a diamond necklace. The necklace, a strand of silver that wrapped low around her neck, would drop the diamond between her breasts. Sesshoumaru expressed immediate approval and Kagome, who wasn't so sure about drawing attention to the plunging necklines on most of the dresses, had to admit the earrings coupled with the necklace were simple enough. Kazuko picked out a pair of dangling earrings, ruby set in diamonds, to match the red dress Sesshoumaru had picked out, and then a necklace of sapphire for the sparkling blue one. Since the diamonds would match the other four dresses, Sesshoumaru decided they were done with jewelry. Kagome sagged with relief.

"There remains one thing," Sesshoumaru said as they exited the shop. His driver, walking behind them, held Kagome's dresses. They had stored the shoes in the car already.

She cringed. "What could we possibly have to do?"

Sesshoumaru smiled—actually smiled—and Kagome whimpered. That smile spelled trouble in so many different ways. "Your hair."

"Is there something wrong with it?" she demanded.

Sesshoumaru took her hand, tugging her close to him. Thankfully, Kagome thought, paparazzi didn't follow businessmen like Mahito Shuusaishi. His free hand settled on the small of her back, and he leaned down to murmur in her ear, "I want you to look like a goddess tonight, Kagome."

She frowned. "You've changed," she said.

"Not as much as you would think." Sesshoumaru released her. There was a strange look in his eyes. "I owe you much." Then the look was gone, replaced with placidity. "So you'll get your hair done, and you can dress at the salon," he decided, leading her toward the car again.

The salon, like every other place Sesshoumaru frequented, was expensive. Kagome didn't even look at the prices when they entered. Instead, she hugged the dress she had picked to wear against her chest. The woman at the front desk found a stylist with enough free time to do Kagome's hair, and she led Kagome into the back of the salon.

The stylist had Kagome dress in the bathroom before sitting her at her station. The stylist complimented Kagome on her hair and quickly began to work, curling it and piling it on her head. By the time she was done, Kagome felt rather like a princess. The stylist had insisted on inserting rhinestone bobby pins into her hair, so the pile of curls, which fell down her neck, sparkled and glowed every time Kagome moved.

"You look lovely," the stylist said, smiling in the mirror as Kagome observed herself from all angles. "I can't wait to see Mahito-san's face."

"It probably won't look any different than usual," Kagome replied, checking the clock on the wall behind her. It was almost six o'clock. She could hardly believe how much time she had spent shopping and primping. "Would you do me a favor?" She fished out her phone, turning it on. "Would you take a picture of me?" Kagome asked.

The stylist grinned, taking the phone and ushering Kagome to a decorative bench near a mirror and some flowers. She took the picture and handed Kagome her phone.

"Let's go, then. I'm sure he's waiting." The stylist winked at her. "Mahito-san is ever punctual."

Somehow, in Kagome's mind, punctual turned into puncture, and she wondered how the stylists would react if they knew the suave businessman in their waiting room was actually a taiyoukai capable of killing them all without exerting himself. Somehow, this made her smile.

* * *

After he had left Kagome to the stylists at the salon, Sesshoumaru had made a quick stop at a nearby store, purchasing a new suit for himself. He had the money to spare, so it didn't bother him that he had probably spent over five million yen on one girl in one day. In fact, he took a small pleasure from it. Sesshoumaru, having lived far longer than even most youkai, was well aware of the fact that one couldn't buy affection, but he did enjoy buying little things for Kagome. Not that dresses that cost as much as a semester at the University of Tokyo were exactly little things.

Sesshoumaru handed his credit card to the cashier and, having decided to wear the suit from the store to spare himself the trouble of changing in his car, made his way to the salon. The stylist had said it would take about an hour to do Kagome's hair, and he was running a bit behind. It had taken longer than necessary to get the proper suit.

When he entered the salon, he approached the counter. After paying, he leaned back, scanning the other people to see if Kagome was there. When he finally noticed her, standing with her head turned toward the window, something inside him lurched. The familiar feeling from the dreams, of heat boiling under his skin as something resonated in the distance, welled up inside his body.

She looked stunning. Her hair was piled in curls on her head, and rhinestones winked at him from the depths of the curls. Several tendrils fell along the back of her neck, making her hair look like a waterfall. She wore the ruby and diamond earrings, large things that fell almost to her shoulders. The red gown sparkled. Made from silk, it was spaghetti strapped with a cowl neckline. Because of the earrings and the sparkling rubies sewn into the dress, there was no need for any other jewelry. The bottom of the dress flared ever so slightly at the knees, and the train was attached to a delicate elastic band around Kagome's wrist.

Sesshoumaru approached her slowly. "Kagome."

Sapphire eyes lifted and met his own. "Sesshoumaru," she said. She sounded breathless. An image of her beneath him filled his head. Her curls strewn across the pillow, her eyes were closed as she breathlessly cried out his name as he slid in and out of her.

Thrusting those thoughts to the back of his mind, he offered her his arm. "Come," he commanded. She shivered, and he could smell her mounting arousal.

He led her to his car, which was waiting on the side of the road, and he helped her to climb inside, following after her.

Keenly aware of her presence beside him, Sesshoumaru inhaled. Her scent hadn't changed much since she had left the Sengoku Jidai. Though he would never have admitted it, he had kept a small scrap of cloth that had torn off her uniform during the final battle. This he would inhale at night, memorizing her scent. He kept the scrap until her scent faded from it completely. Under the subtle floral scent from the shampoo, she still smelled fresh, like the air in morning after a cooling rain.

They traveled in silence for ten minutes. At that point, the car pulled to a stop in front of an elegant building in the traditional style. Sesshoumaru helped Kagome from the car, and she was surprised to see a crowd of reporters with cameras standing to the side of the walk to the front door.

"They're not here for us," Sesshoumaru promised her.

"Who're they here for, then?" Kagome asked, not wanting to have her face plastered on some tabloid.

Sesshoumaru indicated another car pulling up as his own pulled away. When it stopped, Hamasaki Ayumi stepped from the car, followed by a posse of pretty girls and boys. Sesshoumaru lifted his hand to her and she smiled at him.

"Hamasaki frequents this restaurant."

"You know Hamasaki Ayumi." Kagome let out a heavy sigh. "Is there anyone you don't know?"

"Doubtful," Sesshoumaru replied with a quirk of his lips. With the media's attention diverted to Ayumi, Sesshoumaru escorted Kagome into the restaurant. They were seated in a booth toward the far end of the restaurant, far away from Ayumi's party, as per Sesshoumaru's request.

As soon as they sat, a man offered them wine. Sesshoumaru ordered an old vintage that Kagome suspected was incredibly pricey.

"You do know I'm not twenty, right?" she inquired.

Sesshoumaru shrugged. "No one would wonder after your age," he replied. "You look old enough. But you don't have to drink if you'd rather not. I prefer a bit of wine with my meals."

* * *

Kagome felt herself trapped between a rock and a hard place. Sure, he had said she didn't have to drink, but she wondered how much of a difference it would make. She'd had alcohol a number of times with her friends at parties, but this was different. When the waiter returned, she asked for a glass of soda. He inclined his head, setting down a basket of bread and pouring wine for both her and Sesshoumaru. Then he departed.

"So," Kagome said, suddenly feeling awkward.

Sesshoumaru lifted his eyes from the menu to her face. "Would you like an appetizer?"

"I wouldn't have room for dinner, then," she said, eyeing the bread with interest. She was hungry, but she knew after a piece of bread and an appetizer, there wouldn't be space in her stomach for more.

"As you will." Sesshoumaru folded the menu and set it down.

The waiter came back with Kagome's soda, and Sesshoumaru asked for a modest appetizer for himself.

"This is one of those fancy restaurants with courses and everything, isn't it?" Kagome inquired, glancing around at the other diners. Everyone was dressed in finery. She hadn't seen as many people so dressed up since her last high school dance, but this was a more muted and upscale finery. People here wore reds and blacks and whites. Other than that, there were no colors, no huge skirts.

"To an extent," Sesshoumaru agreed.

They were silent until the waiter delivered Sesshoumaru's appetizer, a small salad, and again left them to themselves.

"Everything is so expensive," Kagome muttered, staring at the menu.

"Do you trust my judgment?"

She jumped a little, looking up at him. "I suppose. Why?"

"To relieve you the problem of searching out the cheapest meal, and then simply resigning yourself to your water, I shall order for you," Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome laughed a bit. "You've got a funny way of making a suggestion a command, you know that?" she inquired.

"Yes," he agreed.

Shrugging, she smiled. "Go ahead, then. But, if you don't mind my asking, how did you get to the point where you can just… throw money away like you do?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes on her made her almost uncomfortable. He was intense and, as much as she enjoyed that intensity in her dreams, it was entirely different in real life. To be the singular focus of all his attention was unnerving at best and terrifying at worst.

"I have always had a great deal of wealth," Sesshoumaru finally said. "As the son of the Inu no Taishou, I had access to his great wealth after his death. Youkai are just as vain as humans. He had a palace secreted away in the west where he kept his treasures. I still have most of those. Their equity is astounding. Other pieces, I sold to museums at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Most of my father's trinkets meant nothing to me."

"But you're a businessman now," Kagome prompted.

Sesshoumaru inclined his head. "Though my father's treasures are enough to keep me quite content for years to come even now, I was not content to sit and do nothing with myself. It was easy to endear myself to military leaders before the industrial boom. At that point, I started a weapons company. I have always had a sense for the efficient, and there is nothing humanity learns that youkai do not grasp just as quickly. The art of manufacturing weapons is familiar to me, and you know well enough of Toutousai's great skill."  
"Toutousai makes your weapons?" Kagome inquired, incredulous.

"He designs a number of them, yes," Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome was silent for a moment. In that time, the waiter returned and Sesshoumaru ordered for them both. For Kagome, he ordered salmon. She quickly checked the menu and decided he was a good judge of what she might like. She ignored the price completely, not wanting to know how expensive the dish was, and handed the menu to the waiter. For himself, Sesshoumaru ordered a salad.

"Salad? You just had a salad."

"It is necessary to adapt. I find I enjoy Caesar salads."

Kagome grinned at him. "You've adapted a lot. You're more expressive now. Of all youkai, I never imagined you would integrate easily with humanity."

"It wasn't easy," Sesshoumaru admitted. "There are many things humans do that, even now, baffles youkai. For instance, your world wars. I lived through both of them, and was shocked equally by both. I have seen war and I am familiar with battles, but never had I imagined any creature capable of such cruelty and destruction as your race exhibited."

Kagome pulled her lower lip into her mouth, chewing on it. She couldn't think of a way to reply to that. He was right, of course. Over the years, human beings had come up with some spectacular ways of killing each other, each more vicious that the last.

"However, at the same time, I was surprised by those who rose against oppression and beat it back," Sesshoumaru continued. "I met Winston Churchill. He was an inspired man."

To say she was impressed was an understatement. Kagome took a minute to sip at her soda, thinking. "You said Toutousai is still alive, and that he's working for you. What about… what about other youkai? Why can't I sense their presence? I wasn't ever particularly good at feeling youki, but I was never bereft of the ability either."

Holding up his right hand, Sesshoumaru indicated the gold ring on his finger. "This was a gift from a miko at the turn of the century when it became too hard to hide. It dampens youki so it can only be felt in close proximity." At Kagome's perplexed expression, he continued. "As time went on, miko and youkai managed to develop a primitive understanding of each other. Youkai are spirits of the land, and, after a sense, the land's own caretakers. Miko, on the other hand, are the caretakers of humanity. They began to realize, as the land died, part of that was to do with the death of many youkai. So they did what they could to keep the remaining youkai alive. Many wear a similar piece of jewelry on their person, though each piece is tailored specifically to the youkai wearing it. Those who do not wear such a thing have perished, considered rogues by the miko. It is an unspoken treaty."

"What about my old companions, then?" Kagome asked, her hands wrapped tightly around her glass. "Shippou, the fox kit. Kouga." She didn't name Inuyasha. Not yet. She'd ask after him later.

"I know little of the kit," Sesshoumaru replied. "Of Kouga, the wolf prince, I know much. Youkai, as you know, I'm sure, are immortal. Youkai are spirits, our lives tied to the land. Unless killed in battle, only the destruction of the land to which we are tied will kill us. Wolves are slightly different. Instead of being tied directly to the land, they are tied to vast expanses of land. Without great expanse, they wither. They need to roam." Sesshoumaru paused here to sip his wine and accept his salad from the waiter.

Kagome took her salmon with a smile, picking up her fork and take a bite. It was delicious and later she would feel bad for taking only one more.

"When the land in Japan was lost to industrialization, it is my understanding that it hurt the wolf tribes severely. Many of them died. The wolf prince was always stronger than most, and he managed to live where others had not. But he did not thrive. It wasn't until I went to Hong Kong in the early nineteen hundreds that I saw him. He was living in poverty there, a pitiful excuse for a youkai lord," Sesshoumaru explained. "I found it reasonable to save him from destitution. He told me of his problem—how he didn't have land to roam. I took him to the United States of America some ten years later and he works, to this day, as a park ranger. It still amuses me that no one realizes he's still the same person."

Relief swamped over Kagome to learn that at least one of her old companions was well. She wondered, though, how they managed to disguise themselves as short-lived humans when they could live for an eternity. "How do you do that?" Kagome asked. "Convince people you're aging?"

Sesshoumaru sighed, and Kagome realized that was, perhaps, the hardest of all things he had to accomplish. The guise of human was easy to maintain, but living as a human was quite difficult.

"We pretend we are not ourselves," Sesshoumaru finally replied. "It was easier, before the industrial revolution. Even then, it wasn't so hard. But recently, with the internet, with the paparazzi, it has become far more difficult. Before, perhaps, the sixties, I would allow a select few to know who I was. Those few were carefully chosen, and they ran my businesses as my CEO, appearing when I could not because I was sick or dying. All of them were descended from old families, though they were not always intelligent. They were my figure heads, but I pulled all the strings." There was a trace of amusement on his face, and Kagome could understand why. It probably thrilled him, the idea of controlling all those people, especially since he didn't have the awesome power he once had.

"Granted, that has become far more difficult. People know Mahito Shuusaishi runs this company, and has a piece of that. They know what I look like, they think they know where I live. It becomes too tedious, then, to act as anything other than what I am. So I vanish from the limelight at the end of what would be a human lifespan. I wait until all mention of my previous identity has fallen away, usually fifty years, and then I take back what fools have lost me. It's an amusing game," Sesshoumaru concluded. "I don't know how the wolf prince handles disguising himself from generation to generation. I imagine he uses contacts and dies his hair."

"Does anyone ever figure it out?" Kagome inquired. "Does anyone ever get too close to the truth?"

Sesshoumaru inclined his head. "From time to time. But those people tend to be from an old family, one that has its roots in the Sengoku Jidai. They are also people who tend to have a small bit of power," he explained. "They are accustomed to the idea of youkai. From the time they were little, their small amount of power would give them glimpses through the glamour we often wrap around ourselves. I had a secretary, an old woman who recently passed on, who told me that her dog was a base youkai. That, I find hard to believe. Most of the simpler creatures have been killed. However, the idea has merit, and it is possible, though highly improbable."

"Your life must be complicated," Kagome said softly. "About how many youkai do you think remain?"

"No more than five thousand."

The reply was instantaneous, as if he had anticipated her asking it. He probably had, Kagome reasoned. It shocked her, though, to learn so few youkai survived. In the whole world, against six billion humans, there were so terribly few youkai. She imagined he was lonely.

"And you… don't know anything about Shippou?"

"I said I knew little, not nothing," Sesshoumaru replied, and he smirked at the annoyed look she gave him. She didn't particularly like playing word games, nor did she like picking at the asinine differences between words.

"Well, what do you know then?" she asked, perhaps a bit more sharply than necessary.

"He is alive," Sesshoumaru said. "I believe in the Americas, though I cannot be certain. At the advent of the Second World War, he became disillusioned with the Japanese government, and preferred the western Europeans and the Americans in the United States. I suspect he spent his time in Europe, and not in America, where he would have been made a prisoner of war."

Kagome frowned. "Do you have a way to keep track of the other youkai, then?"

"There is a secure website, as a matter of fact. Every fifty years, we are required to enter our location. If one does not, a miko will be sent out to ascertain whether or not the youkai has gone rogue or is dead. His name is still in the register, as well as his location. Though we can include more, those are the only fields that are required. Some of us wish to preserve our privacy. Others, such as I, have little privacy at all."

She picked at her fish, considering him. "Then… there are miko powerful enough to locate youkai?"

"Few and far between. Less each year. Many turn rogue. Youkai are sometimes asked for assistance in hunting their own," Sesshoumaru said quietly.

From his tone, Kagome realized that he probably had been asked, and agreed, to hunt youkai a number of times. "Ah. That's… terrible," she murmured.

"It is life," Sesshoumaru returned quickly.

Kagome picked at her food more. "Um… I do have one question more, really," she said softly. "It's about—"

"He died in 1803 on the night of the new moon when he contracted an illness while in human form. In the course of a night, that illness ravaged his system so badly that there was noting to be done."

She bowed her head, closing her eyes. Her hands folded around her glass once more, tightening compulsively. "I see." Neither had to ask of whom the other spoke. It was obvious enough.

"Are you going to eat?" Sesshoumaru inquired.

Looking up, Kagome wondered when he had finished his salad, when she had barely picked at her fish. She had talked far less than he. But he held her in thrall the entire time. "I suppose I should," she replied. "How late is it?"

"Nearly nine."

"We've been here for three hours? It hardly seems like it!" she exclaimed, incredulous.

Sesshoumaru offered a quirky smile. "Time flies."

"Clearly," Kagome muttered. "Can it be boxed?" She watched him as his brow arched. "I suppose restaurants of this caliber wouldn't dream of boxing their food to be eaten as leftovers."

"Rather," he drawled. "It is no matter. If you would like to take it, I will make a special request."

Shaking her head. "No, don't worry about it. I just… I'll have to repay you."

Sesshoumaru's brow arched ever so slightly. "You wish to repay me for a piece of fish that cost nine thousand yen?" he asked.

Kagome's eyes widened considerably. "Eighty five?" she gasped. "That's insane."

"Perhaps to you. You look like your mind is on something else, Kagome."

She jerked the smallest bit, looking at him, her eyes full of consideration. "Actually… Earlier, I asked my mother why my traveling didn't bother her. Speaking of which, why aren't you surprised?"

Sesshoumaru looked impassive. "After you vanished, and because of our dreams, I searched out the monk and the demon exterminator. They told me your story. Continue," he commanded.

Nodding, Kagome huddled over her glass of soda, as if protecting it. She took a sip, thinking she ought to eat more of her now rather cool salmon. "I asked her why my traveling then and why my meeting you now didn't strike her as strange. She told me to ask you." Kagome's eyes refused to leave his.

He watched her as she watched him. He had been moving to call the waiter over to ask for their bill, but he had frozen. Drawing back, Sesshoumaru settled into his seat like a statue carved of marble: cold, impassive and frozen.

"Because this Sesshoumaru watched over the Higurashi shrine," Sesshoumaru finally said. His spoke softly, reverting to a dialect long defunct. "Once I heard your story, I decided to wait, regardless of your race, regardless of change, regardless of the time it takes." He held up his hand to silence her. "Do not ask. I didn't ask. I didn't allow myself to ask. This Sesshoumaru simply acted and reacted, and the path has led me to dine here, with you, this night."

"But—"

"I came to your shrine to see your mother years ago, when she lived there as a teenager with your grandfather. She has some powers, where he has none, and she recognized me for what I am," Sesshoumaru continued. "I told her, one day, she would have a little girl, a pretty bird trapped in a cage, who would exist in two times, with a sacred duty. She didn't believe me. I left her with my business card in case she ever changed her mind. Several years later, I received a call. She was pregnant with a baby girl. So I told her everything, told her to be supportive."

"Why?" Kagome cut in sharply.

Sesshoumaru looked back at her, a curious and unreadable expression on his face. "I would think it obvious," he intoned blandly.

She was silent, but so was he, and both were content to remain quiet.

"Your bill, sir," the waiter said, placing the folder down.

Sesshoumaru hardly paid him any attention, giving him only enough of his time to say, "Put it on my tab."

Bowing, the waiter moved away from the table.

Kagome didn't really notice.

_I would think it obvious_.

There were too many ways to interpret that, and she was afraid of all of them.

"It's only nine," Sesshoumaru said.

Kagome's mind threatened to shut down. She didn't try to think of a reply; she just let one fall from her lips. "We have plenty of time," she replied. "To catch up."

A slow, strange smile spread across Sesshoumaru's lips. "Then let's catch up." He offered her his hand across the dinner table, and Kagome saw the stripes on his wrist. She flushed, but took his hand. It was an odd gesture from him, almost too human. But, at the same time, it somehow fit him. He was a taiyoukai, a great lord. In Kagome's mind, it made sense that he would be regal and courtly.

Sesshoumaru led her from the restaurant, to his car, and they slid inside together. Before Kagome had a chance to fasten her seatbelt, Sesshoumaru had pressed her against the side of the car, which would have been uncomfortable but for the fact that she was far too distracted by his warm, hard body over hers as he kissed her hard, fast, and passionately.

* * *

_Freaking one shots that get away from you._

_So, there you go, all you who wanted to read about their meeting. And oh: there will be another chapter. Probably pure smut. Edited for depending on how bad it gets. We shall see. But after the next part? Yeah, it'll be done. _


End file.
